tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post4296999965751702484..comments2015-03-03T15:14:31.034-05:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: SUN 7-15-12Rex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36159318582723016672012-07-24T14:50:08.123-04:002012-07-24T14:50:08.123-04:00Agree with Spacecraft and Ginger. I sat there spi...Agree with Spacecraft and Ginger. I sat there spinning my globe, trying to finish, becoming increasingly irritated by the obscure A*A answers and frustrated not to know Hebrew. If I encounter too many more puzzles like this, I&#39;m not going to bother doing them anymore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-278908066512809102012-07-23T13:34:21.138-04:002012-07-23T13:34:21.138-04:00I didn&#39;t like this puzzle. I felt the theme pe...I didn&#39;t like this puzzle. I felt the theme penalized people for having too much geographical knowledge. We&#39;ve seen that the correct answers included continents, countries, states, provinces, cities, regions, bodies of water, U.S. counties (Alameda), and obsolete names; a priori, no geographic name can be ruled out. What&#39;s more, every geographic name has an undetermined starting or ending square, or both, until it&#39;s completely filled in. Even if we get an &quot;A&quot; in the middle of the line, we can&#39;t be sure that it&#39;s the start of a name.<br /><br />There are an awful lot of plausible geographic names that begin and end with &quot;A&quot;. I quickly made a list of 87 of them to prepare for this comment. If you have ALA---A, it could be ALABAMA, ALACHUA, ALAMEDA, or ALAMOSA.<br /><br />In view of all that, any of the 57 vertical words that cross the theme words is a potential Natick. That just seems like too many.Gwilhttp://www.statoids.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-68839569705728154822012-07-23T09:41:41.769-04:002012-07-23T09:41:41.769-04:00I have a nit with the final graphic. Off is not a...I have a nit with the final graphic. Off is not a direction. It seems it would be better if the caption was &quot;Off is how I want you to fuck&quot; or something similar. Otherwise, great write-up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-66030266698254251522012-07-22T20:49:21.552-04:002012-07-22T20:49:21.552-04:00I worked this puzzle while watching the British Op...I worked this puzzle while watching the British Open. The final round was like watching a train wreck - in slow motion. For every fine shot, there were 10 bad ones, into pot bunkers and impossible lies in impossibly dense patches of rough. This puzzle was exactly the same. For every interesting clue or answer, there were 10 bad ones. It was just a slog. <br /><br />The best part of today&#39;s puzzle experience was the write up. Thank You @Deb, you made my day.Gingernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-16579431177718422572012-07-22T16:58:40.032-04:002012-07-22T16:58:40.032-04:00I finished the puzzle but had to go to my dictiona...I finished the puzzle but had to go to my dictionary to look up geographical names starting with &quot;A&quot;. I was lucky because I used my college dictionary printed in the 1960&#39;s which had the old name for Alma Ata.Idahoconnienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-20274047475016632372012-07-22T16:48:21.547-04:002012-07-22T16:48:21.547-04:00I got off to a roaring start. EVERYTHING was work...I got off to a roaring start. EVERYTHING was working for me, starting with &quot;Borg Rival&quot;. CONNORS jumped to mind and fit perfectly in 8d, but first I had to check some crosses. FACT at 6a gave me the C, and FAST at 6d, along with TERMITE at 9d verified FACT. &quot;OK,&quot; I SEZ, &quot;let&#39;s get one more cross before entering CONNORS. Taking a look at 18a: Borg Rival. That&#39;s awesome! two Borg rivals crossing each other! Never seen that one before. But wait...ASHE at 18a voids CONNORS. and...uh...now that I look at 8d again, that&#39;s not Borg Rival at all.&quot; I sez.<br /><br />Somehow my eyes saw the clue for 18a and then darted to 8d on the grid. <br /><br />AND YET, I hadn&#39;t written CONNORS in yet, so I still had a clean grid. Wouldn&#39;t it be something if I finished with no writeovers, despite opening with an attempt to fit a wrong answer in the wrong squares? And I was seriously breezing through this thing for quite some time.<br /><br />But it turned out to be Natick City (is that redundant?), with wrong guesses in three spots, and a messy writeover in the frozen tundra anyway (I accidentally finished entering ANTARCTICA starting in the wrong place).<br /><br />KARAT/cARAT was a coin toss; my gold coin landed wrong side up. <br /><br />LIEBER lost out to LIEBEn. <br /><br />And I was thinking I had seen something like ALMAATA in a puzle fairly recently...or was it AAMATA? I eventually decided to go with ALMAATA or ALMAOTA, thinking (correctly) that it might be two words, and I knew for sure that ALMA was a word. And I went with O because I thought it gave me my best chance at 24d (GONEF, GONE F, G-ONE-F....I had no idea on this one).<br /><br />Anyway, that&#39;s my story, and it isn&#39;t really very interesting, come to think of it, but I&#39;m not ashamed to have written it, because I sign MY name...Anonymous. And without me this blog ain&#39;t nothin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-72904697837664212622012-07-22T16:16:11.152-04:002012-07-22T16:16:11.152-04:00Add a few slices of Winesap to that and we&#39;d h...Add a few slices of Winesap to that and we&#39;d have a tasty treat.Wine Sapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15456193092986644442012-07-22T16:10:30.102-04:002012-07-22T16:10:30.102-04:00Just think if this was a puzzle with so many sport...Just think if this was a puzzle with so many sports answers instead of geography - the yowling would have been heard all the way to Alma Aata!!<br /><br />I was thinking with all the place names, we would be relieved of any non-theme ones, but RR snuck in 2 more but starting with &quot;B&quot; - Bolivia and Brazil.<br /><br />When I was done with this puzzle, I felt like jumping into the sea - at least I had my choice of the Aegean or the Aral. <br /><br />I did like the asiago cozying up to the challah. Yum.connie in seattlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23087521807871171852012-07-22T15:53:29.417-04:002012-07-22T15:53:29.417-04:00I completed the puzzle, but upon further review I ...I completed the puzzle, but upon further review I did not complete the puzzle during the <i>process</i> of the puzzle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15711196116790768782012-07-22T14:43:18.961-04:002012-07-22T14:43:18.961-04:00I thought I completed the puzzle, but I had TEc/cA...I thought I completed the puzzle, but I had TEc/cARAT instead of TEK/KARAT.<br /><br />LUI should be allowed, but with a more specific clue, like &quot;Him, to Henri.&quot; I&#39;ve certainly seen men&#39;s cologne marketed in the U.S. with &quot;Pour Lui&quot; (for him&quot; on the label. I had the third letter of the &quot;French pronoun&quot; for a while before figuring out the whole word: moI or toI would also have worked as French pronouns.<br /><br />And if you have to have an obscure word like ORRIS in the puzzle, give the crossing word a fair clue. &quot;They&#39;re often seen in banks&quot; is not a good clue for OARS. I mean, there&#39;s no reason the cross couldn&#39;t have been eARS/eRRIS. Whenever I go into my local bank, I can see that every customer and employee there has two eARS.Joshuanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-58371558996282036602012-07-22T12:48:13.775-04:002012-07-22T12:48:13.775-04:00DNBTF (Did not bother to finish). I thought, are w...DNBTF (Did not bother to finish). I thought, are we really going to slog through a geographical &quot;A&quot;-list? I dunno; I&#39;ve got some drying paint that needs to be watched. By the time I had sussed out ALMAATA (?????) I figured, let&#39;s go for the paint. Will, I can&#39;t believe you let this piece of IDIOCY get into print.Spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-55206851549142655332012-07-21T23:14:31.973-04:002012-07-21T23:14:31.973-04:00tough indeed but a few stretch answers,mesdames is...tough indeed but a few stretch answers,mesdames is french for ladies for instance,adding an S is not french!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-46978379466755102922012-07-20T19:38:01.204-04:002012-07-20T19:38:01.204-04:00Deb, I really enjoyed your write-up, but I&#39;d r...Deb, I really enjoyed your write-up, but I&#39;d rather you leave sexual orientation out of your discussion. You&#39;re certainly not adding anything funny or constructive to the conversation about homosexuality. It sort of turned me off your entire review.Christyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01168394177538624778noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74777858499001720262012-07-19T20:58:22.177-04:002012-07-19T20:58:22.177-04:00@Efficiency Expert: I&#39;d pustulate that 99.9% ...@Efficiency Expert: I&#39;d pustulate that 99.9% of gay men are born that way, but I do believe that there&#39;s a not inconsiderable number of gay women who choose it after suffering through a heterosexual relationship with a jerk. <br /><br />It&#39;s also possible, of course, that she was gay to begin with and didn&#39;t realize it. I never asked her because I wasn&#39;t terribly curious.Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16675331024091722316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19562953808840843822012-07-19T16:11:42.484-04:002012-07-19T16:11:42.484-04:00from wikipedia re I Love LA
This song is an examp...from wikipedia re I Love LA<br /><br />This song is an example of Newman&#39;s ambivalence toward the American Dream, as it celebrates living the dream (&quot;look at that mountain, look at those trees&quot;), while giving a nod to those who have been unable to fulfill the dream (&quot;look at that bum... he&#39;s down on his knees&quot;). Newman also presents this dichotomy by incorporating the names of L.A.&#39;s Century Boulevard, Victory Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Imperial Highway and 6th Street into the lyrics of the song. Traversing any one of these roadways from end to end will reveal some of the wealthiest and some of the poorest areas of the city. In the video, after Newman says the name of each street, a crowd shouts &quot;We love it!&quot;<br /> <br />Notwithstanding the arguably satiric message of the song..Leroy Parquetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87341429912810668822012-07-19T16:09:11.274-04:002012-07-19T16:09:11.274-04:00re: doing what men do while watching 3 stooges
It...re: doing what men do while watching 3 stooges<br /><br />It&#39;s called multitasking. And if your wife is a lesbian...<br /><br />&quot;and now She&#39;s gay&quot;, I thought people were born that way.Efficiency Expertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-81277575989206569632012-07-19T15:53:39.721-04:002012-07-19T15:53:39.721-04:00The name &quot;Almaty&quot; derives from the Kazak...The name &quot;Almaty&quot; derives from the Kazakh word for &#39;apple&#39; so it is the big apple.Leroy Parquetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-84710464950355234832012-07-19T15:52:58.204-04:002012-07-19T15:52:58.204-04:00The name &quot;Almaty&quot; derives from the Kazak...The name &quot;Almaty&quot; derives from the Kazakh word for &#39;apple&#39; so it is the big apple.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49034177637741966822012-07-19T03:39:05.304-04:002012-07-19T03:39:05.304-04:00For me, a puzzle is good if I don&#39;t have to go...For me, a puzzle is good if I don&#39;t have to google and I finish the entire thing correctly. So, this was a good puzzle! Thank you.<br /><br />Funnily, Alma Ata was a given. I know people from Alma Ata and have not started yet to call it Almaty. <br /><br />Aral Sea was difficult to come up with because it kind of broke the rules - it&#39;s a body of water, not a place one can feel earth beneath one&#39;s feet.<br /><br />Color me happy.nurturinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02035395856164817422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49744108362633692902012-07-18T00:38:53.229-04:002012-07-18T00:38:53.229-04:00I can&#39;t say enough bad things about this puzzl...I can&#39;t say enough bad things about this puzzle - alma ata is not an alternative spelling in THIS universe. Plus no concistancy in the theme is not a theme. Puzzle was just no fun.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60093333488884233232012-07-17T22:14:31.925-04:002012-07-17T22:14:31.925-04:00so i am reading the comments and notice a number o...so i am reading the comments and notice a number of people say what about austria?? well, im thinking these people completely missed it, austria is in the puzzle --- OOPs - I had Austria for algeria and thinking the bloggers aren&#39;t too smart!! i loved this guest bloggerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-81487344489959702012-07-17T17:41:55.994-04:002012-07-17T17:41:55.994-04:00I enjoy the puzzle o=no matter what - can&#39;t ag...I enjoy the puzzle o=no matter what - can&#39;t agree with most comments - and please no use of the &quot;f&quot; word - totally unnecessary!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-54034825427074208692012-07-16T15:39:25.900-04:002012-07-16T15:39:25.900-04:00@PFSA...
What, your mother taught you that being i...@PFSA...<br />What, your mother taught you that being invited to someone&#39;s house (or blog) as a guest means you ought not s#@t all over it or the other guests?<br />Well, at least not the first time through.<br /><br />There are those that like to raise hackles. Some do so with intense cleverness. Their deserving targets may not even know they&#39;ve been slammed. <br />Others are not so clever. Funny - because the puzzle-related post was a pretty thoughtful one!<br /><br />She got this long-time lurker out of the shadows. I forgot to say earlier that there were pretty damn few folks who said bad things about the guests. Certainly nowhere near enough to warrant such a savage lashing-out.<br /><br />Aahh well... such is the true diversity of Rex&#39;s laissez-faire attitude, which I inf act applaud. I would rather have to ignore or chuckle at the occasional tantrum-thrower than have a cleansed &amp; scrubbed forum.Meanderthal Manshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17469111364946010221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-56111938877871479722012-07-16T15:11:04.290-04:002012-07-16T15:11:04.290-04:00I&#39;m glad this was a &quot;guest&quot; blogger ...I&#39;m glad this was a &quot;guest&quot; blogger because I enjoy checking with Rex when I am truly stuck on a puzzle and enjoy his comments. However, I do not appreciate the use of the &quot;F&quot; word in the final comment / graphic. Such should not be done or permitted. Please Rex, do not use this guest again, whoever the heck they are.<br /><br />PFSAPFSAnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19929814934998329562012-07-16T12:56:49.221-04:002012-07-16T12:56:49.221-04:00I couldn&#39;t get the Alma Ata bit either, but fr...I couldn&#39;t get the Alma Ata bit either, but frankly, I was much more annoyed by Aral Sea than Alma Ata. It just didn&#39;t seem to fit in well with the other theme answers. All that said though, in general I agree with anonymous @6:38. I read the Sunday post every week and if I didn&#39;t know better, would feel guilty for getting so much pleasure out of solving puzzles that are apparently so loathsome. :DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com